论远程教育簇群效应

On the Cluster Effect of Distance Education

“远程教育簇群”是指在远程教育领域内因竞争和其它因素而互相联系的、在区域位置上集中的学校和有关机构（包括企业、科研机构等实体）的集合。远程教育簇群能产生“吸纳效应”、“互补效应”和“竞争效应”等，从而对远程教育的生存与发展起重大作用。我们应当关注“远程教育簇群”现象，并对它进行研究。

By the word ＂cluster＂, we refer to the aggregate of companies and institutions that are interrelated in a specific field and located geographically around a center. Clusters not only exist in manufacturing industry, but also in the service industry. The so-called educational cluster refers to the consortium of schools and institutions concerned (including such entities as enterprises, research institutions etc.), which are interrelated in the field of education due to competitions or some other elements. Educational cluster is derived from enterprise clusters, although it differs greatly from the classical enterprise cluster. As a matter of fact, there have existed in the world colonies which are something like the educational cluster. Take China as an example, the booming ＂educational garden region＂, ＂city of universities＂, ＂university arbour＂; and ＂high education zone＂ are nothing but the rudiments of the educational clusters. For instance, the government of Zhejiang province is raising large sums of funds to invest in establishing five big high educational zones around Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou. The total area will cover 30,000 mu with several institutions of high education in each zone. It is estimated that the number of students enrolled could reach 200,000 or more. As a result of the extension of the educational clusters, distance educational clusters are formed. Therefore the latter share some basic connotation and nature of the former, yet they have their special features as well. The distance educational cluster has made its debut in China. In July, 2000, 31 pilot universities conducting networking education programs set up the ＂Modern Distance Education Cooperation Group＂. One of its main responsibilities is organize the production of teaching materials and coordinate teaching resources to be shared, and conduct the selection of courses and recognition of credits among its members schools. This cooperation group is, in essence, a consortium of 31 networking schools, thus regarded as a rudimental form of the distance education cluster. Actually, it has been quite long that such a cluster exists in the field of distance education. In terms of distance education system in China, the nation wide TV university system with one Center TV University, 44 provincial TV universities, more than 800 ones in regions and cities 2000 in counties and almost 20,000 learning spots. Being the largest distance education system, it is recognized as at the top of 10 mega universities in the world. Yet this TV system can only be taken as embryo of a kind of cluster due to its vertical oneness which is rather different from the classical clusters. As early as in the 1980＇s, people started studying the classical clusters in industry. Yet the study on educational cluster, especially the distance educational cluster has been rarely done so far. Due to this reason, the author hopes that his essay offers a few commonplace remarks by way of introduction so that others may come up with valuable opinions.